Ghosts of Magnolia
by DayDream Jedi
Summary: In an alternate world, Team Natsu takes on a much different form than the one we know... What's worse than angry Natsu? Angry Natsu with a Positron Collider!


**GHOSTS OF MAGNOLIA**

**A Fairy Tail Crossover**

**Chapter 001**

Natsu Dragneel leaned back in the chair and sighed mightily. But this is not the Natsu Dragneel we know. This Natsu was wearing a bright red jumpsuit with yellow collar and cuffs. A black rectangular patch over the left breast of the jumpsuit had his last name stitched in red, reading as DRAGNEEL. There was another patch on his right shoulder, featuring a stylized white ghost inside a No symbol.

"I'm _bored!" _he moaned. Across from him, sitting behind a desk festooned with a computer monitor, printer and other office paraphernalia, was a gorgeous white-haired woman in a red dress that actually looked entirely out of place in the slightly shabby environs of the garage hall they were in.

"My, my Natsu, you're bored again?" the woman, Mirajane Strauss, asked playfully. Natsu just groaned in response, leaning even further back in his chair. That was until a certain dark-haired boy came striding down the staircase on the west wall. In addition to his hair, he had a face that seemed molded into an almost permanent look of disinterest in the world. He also wore a jumpsuit like Natsu but his was colored gray with dark blue cuffs and collar. His last name was also stitched across the front of the jumpsuit and read FULLBUSTER. Natsu eyes him lazily as he crossed the hall but then shot up out his chair, all pretense of boredom forgotten as he jabbed his finger at Fullbuster dramatically.

"Oi, Gray! Don't touch the temperature! It's hard enough to heat this place!"

"What are you talking about?" responded Gray in annoyance, "It's burning up in here!"

"What the hell are you talking about?! There's three feet of snow outside!" yelled Natsu, beginning to stalk towards Gray.

"Yeah, and you've got it so hot in here that all that snow'd melt faster than you could say flame-brain!" fired back Gray as he flicked the thermometer's switch from heat to cool.

"GRAY!" bellowed Natsu as he leapt forward and tackled Gray to the ground. From her desk, Mira just watched them with her perpetual smile.

"My, my," she said.

The fight continued for few moments until another of the building's residents came down the stairs, this time a gorgeous, blond-haired young woman. Like Natsu and Gray, she also wore a jumpsuit, but hers was blue with white collar and cuffs. The patch on her chest read HEARTFILLIA.

Seeing that Natsu and Gray were at it again, she sighed mightily and leaned over the banister and called out to Mirajane.

"Hey, Mira! What are they fighting about this time?"

"Oh, Gray wanted to lower the thermostat but Natsu didn't want him too, Lucy," Mira replied cheerfully, even as the ball of flailing limbs known as Natsu and Gray crashed across her desk. Lucy could only gape at Mira in astonishment.

"LOWER the temperature?! It's 35 degrees outside! There's SNOW!"

"Well, you know how Gray and heat mix," replied Mirajane with a shrug. Just at that moment, Natsu disentangled himself from Gray and lunged for the thermostat. Gray gave chase, reaching out a hand to stop Natsu from shifting the switch back to heat at the same time as Natsu did. The poor switch, caught between two titanic forces tried to put up a brave struggle but realized it was at a disadvantage, gave up the ghost and snapped out of the thermostat housing. For a moment there was silence as Natsu, Gray, Lucy and Mirajane stared at the now broken thermostat.

"You-," bellowed Natsu.

"Idiot!" finished Gray. Just as they were about slug each other with right crosses, a voice, much louder and with a feminine ring to it echoed through the hall.

"Gray! Natsu! Knock it off! NOW!"

Both of them froze, fists inches from connecting and slowly, fearfully turned their heads to look at the source of the voice. It had come from where the basement staircase was, just under the upper stairs and belonged to a statuesque young woman with long, flowing red hair, who was wearing a coal black jumpsuit with dark blue cuffs and collar. Her face, which at other seasons was capable of great beauty, was twisted into a fierce scowl and her violet-colored eyes glared at the two offenders. The name on her patch read SCARLET. Beside her stood a diminutive old man with wild white hair, which did not reach up to the top of his head and a bushy white mustache. He wore a white lab coat over an orange button-up shirt, a black necktie, tan slacks and black loafers. This man's name was Professor Makarov Dreyar. He was also scowling at Natsu and Gray but unlike Scarlet, his eyes held a twinkle of mischief.

Natsu and Gray sprang apart from each other and then sprang together, arm in arm, dopey grins plastered on their faces.

"Hey Erza!" they chorused with forced enthusiasm. Erza Scarlet, however, wasn't having it. She stalked towards the two boys, still scowling and looking for all the world like she was about to murder Natsu and Gray. The grins on their faces shifted into looks of pure fright as Erza stomped over to them, grabbed them by the collars and slammed their heads together, causing Mirajane and Lucy to wince in sympathy.

"You idiots!" Erza hissed at them. "I thought I told you not to fight anymore! Now look what you've done!"

As Erza berated the hapless duo, the old man ambled over to where the thermostat was and picked up the broken plastic switch. Still scowling, he shoved the switch into Natsu and Gray's faces.

"You two morons think I've not got better things to do around here than fix thermostats huh?!" he yelled at them. For a little old man, he sure had a powerful voice!

"I've got important research to conduct! Not mention all the equipment I have to fix and maintain! And this isn't the only thing! Mira!"

The little man marched over to Mirajane's desk as she pulled out a thick sheaf of papers from a drawer in her desk. She handed them to Makarov and he sprang up onto her desk.

"Where are the others?! Lucy! Get down here! Loke! Levy! Where are you?!"

"Hai, hai, I'm here," replied Loke as he slid off the couch in the office area located behind a row of filing cabinets that were behind Mirajane's reception desk. He was an intensely handsome young man with wild, spiky golden-blond hair and blue-tinted sunglasses perpetually perched at angle. Like the others he also wore a jumpsuit, green with orange cuffs and collar. Nobody knew what his last name was, or if he even had one, so his name patch simply read LOKE.

The girl, Levy, came sliding down one of the poles that run to the upper floors, as this place had once been a firehouse. She was much more petite than either Erza or Lucy but was stronger than she looked. She had her dusky blue hair done up with a yellow hair band and her jumpsuit was orange with dark red cuffs and collar. She also wore a pair of red-rimmed glasses.

Makarov held the papers before him.

"Do you know what these are? They're complaints! From the Mayor's office, the city council, our own damn clients! Complaints of stuff you lot have wrecked! I don't have time to deal with this crap, so I just want you to do one thing for me!" At that point Makarov whipped out a Zippo lighter, flicked it on and set fire to the papers.

"Keep getting the suckers to sign the Release From Damages form!"

Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Erza, Loke, Levy and even Mirajane all gaped at Makarov.

"Science should be messy and unpredictable, otherwise there's no fun! Besides, it's not our fault that charged particle beams mark up the walls. But seriously Gray, leave the heater alone, it's only 69 degrees in here and not much warmer upstairs. Now, I'm going back to work. Levy, I'll need your help with our "guest" in a few minutes. He keeps losing interest in Happy." And with that, Makarov hopped off the desk and began to head upstairs. The others stared after until a blue cat floated down past one of the fire polls. This was not an unusual occurrence and the cat flew into Natsu's arms with a wail, its white wings dissolving into light and then fading away.

"Natsu! I don't want to be around the blob thing anymore! Don't let gramps take me back up there!" the cat wailed.

"Don't worry Happy! You can hide down in the sub-basement; gramps'd never look there!"

Just then a heavy hand latched onto Natsu and Gray's shoulders. They whipped around to find a glowering Erza looming over them.

"The Professor might have forgiven you but I do not! Your punishment will be to wax the car… twice! Now get to it!" she commanded as she hurled the hapless duo in the direction of the car that was parked in the middle of the hall, Happy wriggling out of Natsu's arms and flying away next to Lucy. This particular car had begun life as an X759 Cadillac Miller-Meteor ambulance/hearse, but now had been converted for a special purpose, its roof festooned with light bars and strange tubes and gadgets. The license plate on the rear and forward bumpers read ECTO-1.

Under Erza's supervision, the two unfortunate boys began to wax the car's white and red paint and chrome accents.

"She liiiiiikes them," said Happy, happily. Lucy did a double take.

"How do you figure that?" she asked the cat, bewildered.

"Girls abuse the guys they like. Erza liiiiiiikes Gray and Natsu!"

Lucy sweat-dropped.

"Um, it's the other way around with that Happy…" she began but then Erza looked over at them and said, frostily, "I can hear you."

Happy yelped and took off in the direction of Loke's "office."

"Save me Loke! Erza's going to eat me!"

"Gah! Get off Happy! I'm trying to take a cat-nap here," Loke growled.

Before anything else could happen, the phone on Mirajane's desk begun to ring. Every head in the room snapped towards it; even Happy disentangled himself from Loke to see what was going on. A grin gradually began to spread itself across Natsu's face as Mirajane picked up the receiver and spoke cheerfully into it.

"Ghostbusters of Magnolia, if you've got a ghost and don't want to play host, we're who you call!"


End file.
